


What's In A Word - Mamihlapinatapei

by Davechicken



Category: Revolution (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-25
Updated: 2015-06-25
Packaged: 2018-04-06 03:06:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4205616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Davechicken/pseuds/Davechicken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt:</p>
<p>Mamihlapinatapei - The look between two people in which each loves the other but is too afraid to make the first move.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What's In A Word - Mamihlapinatapei

A day full of laps, of press-ups, of staring front-and-centre when words were barked into faces, spittle spraying over cheeks. Of beastings, of lactic acid burn, of emotional and physical abuse. Break the ego down, reform the boy into a soldier. That was the principle. It was late, and in the barracks everyone was asleep, or pretending to be. They could be woken up at any moment for more, so it was important to grab what slivers of slumber there were left to them, to drift out of reality and into the dreamscape where you processed the day.

Miles Matheson (he still had a name, he did, he was more than the rank he held. In the dark, he had to repeat his name to himself over and over, like a secret) rolled over under the scratchy, uncomfortably starched sheet. One of the curtains wasn’t fully closed (that idiot Brown, who was never going to last here if he couldn’t sleep in the fully dark), letting the fat moon wend her threads into the room of uniform metal and fabric. It glinted off Bass’ too-wide eyes, and he shook his head.

“You should be asleep,” he rumbled, keeping his voice pitched lower than usual.

“So should you,” Bass pointed out.

Miles tried to keep the smile off his face, but it was almost impossible. Thankfully the light was behind him, so it mostly wouldn’t show. Not that it mattered. Bass would know anyway.

“It everything you thought it would be?” his best friend asked him.

Miles shrugged just slightly, the sound speaking for him. “I guess.”

It was, and it wasn’t. This bit was the hardest, not the actual work part of it. You had to retrain people out of old habits, had to teach them how to work as a team instead of as a self. Some people knew how to do that better than others, he thought. He was here because it was the _thing_. It was what Mathesons did. Especially ones who weren’t ridiculously academic like Ben. Miles just… didn’t have the career prospects of his brother, and he just needed to leave that small-town mentality. Where everyone knew who you were, and everything you’d done wrong. The forces were supposed to make or break you, and he hoped it was the former, not the latter.

Bass, though… Bass shouldn’t be here. He knew what he’d done. Knew he’d lied to the cops that night. Knew he’d thrown away all his promise for… what? For Emma? For Miles’ girlfriend, the one he left behind?

The other flumped up his pillow, burrowing his hands under it.

“You should sleep,” Miles said.

“I know.”

“You were… you were–” how did you say ‘struggling’ without being rude, or hurting someone’s feelings? Anyone else, and Miles would have outright said it. But not Bass. Not tonight.

“I’ll be fine. We got this, remember?” Bass’ lashes fluttered a few times, betraying the exhaustion he actually felt.

“Yeah, we got this.”

He knew he’d never fail with Bass around. Knew he’d never stop trying, and knew if he fell down that Bass would be right beside him, propping him up. He’d do anything for him, and Miles knew he would do the same. The only piece of home that followed him, that always believed in him. The only piece that _was_ home.

“Well, I’m tired,” Miles said, giving him the freedom to sleep himself. “So stop staring at me. You’re like a fucking owl.”

Bass laughed. “Alright.” He closed his eyes, and rolled onto his back.

Miles didn’t move, watching the slow rise and fall of his chest. Home.

He was going to make it. They were both going to make it.

It was going to be fine.


End file.
